shot, george washington bridge, traffic moving pretty well this morning, but, boy, it sure wasn't a few months back after the traffic jams engineered by aides to chris christie to get back at one of his political opponents. One of the big questions right now, how much has it hampered his white house prospects? He has stepped up. He's talking about the new jersey governor after those bombshell e-mails with calls from criminal investigations. Abc's jim avila is in ft. Lee, new jersey, right now, has the very latest for us. Good morning, jim. Reporter: Good morning, robin. It's four days that ft. Lee, new jersey, won't soon forget. That massive traffic jam apparently putting lives in danger and apparently for political reasons. Looks like there might be a tie-up. Reporter: This town in the shadow of america's busiest bridge, the george washington from new jersey to manhattan paralyzed by the simple closing of two of three approach lanes. A few cones that backed up traffic through downtown ft. Lee day after day in what now is clearly an act of political retribution by the high-ups that report directly to governor chris christie. This puts at risk people in the community of ft. Lee. Reporter: In fact, in a letter from the director of ft. Lee emergency services obtained by abc news, the mar yore is aadvised of four separate incidents that week where first responders were delayed by the man-made traffic jam including one in which a 91-year-old heart attack victim died after paramedics were delayed due to heavy traffic. It's disturbing to find out people are supposed to be protecting public actually impaired public safety. Reporter: How did this happen? E-mails from governor christie's friend and deputy chief of staff implicate revenge politics. Just after the democratic mayor of ft. Lee declined to support his republican governor for re-election, this e-mail was sent, "time for some traffic problems in ft. Lee." The response, "got it." Parentally got somebody mad at me, those e-mails are pretty damning. Reporter: And it gets worse. With christie aides rejoicing as ft. Lee suffers. Is it wrong that I am smiling? Christie, who has not been directly died to the e-mails or texts often boasts he gives as good as he gets in his jersey style. Damn, I'm governor. Can you just shut up for a second? Reporter: Today his political enemies are thinking his office has taken that style too far. In a statement, governor christie said that he was misled by staff and that they will be held accountable, but so far, no firings. We should learn more about all this today at a hearing in the state capital where the star witness is scheduled to be one of governor christie's key aides. George? Okay, jim, thanks very much. Let's bring in matthew dowd. Matthew, I'll put this on the political richter scale, one, a two-day story, ten, he capps run for president. Where does it stand? Reporter: Definitely more than a one at this point. I think it's going to four or five right now. Whether it's a ten or not, there's still some things we need to know. Is there more shoes to drop, georgy is this a pattern? Was there environment in the governor's office to allow this to happen? We don't know yet. His worry right now whether or not this is going to really hurt him is whether or not jersey brashness which people like, it is an asset moves to "soprano" bullying. That's the line, if he crosses that and there's a pattern, it's a huge problem. He still has a lot of damage control. He put out the statement saying he didn't know about it but hasn't come before cameras yet and hasn't fired anyone. Reporter: Well, I think he needs to do something really quick today. First of all, he has to fire someone or someones, obviously the course of those e-mails show that somebody was involved and did a very wrong thing in the midst of it. He has to fire someone. That has to happen today, two, he has to get in front of the cameras and be totally transparent. He should release a bunch of e-mails from a bunch of different things. The worry his administration has not only is there more here but is there other stories this kind of thing happened before, not only was there a ft. Lee bridge problems but others we don't know about that's always a problem and now you have calls for a criminal investigation. Everyone will get lawyered up right now and the big worry, of course, for christie would have to be some kind of e-mail or testimony saying he did know about it or did direct it. Reporter: Absolutely. One of these things is a mistake, two troubling, three, three tries you're out. Normally when politicians and bridges are mentioned in the same paragraph it's usually not helpful. Thanks very much. Get the point there.

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